ROCK HILL, S.C. (Reuters) - Fifty-four years after nine young black men became the first U.S. civil rights protesters to serve jail time for sitting at an all-white lunch counter, surviving members of the group will return to a South Carolina courtroom this month to be exonerated of their crimes.

Their "jail, no bail" strategy helped galvanize the fight against racial inequality in the South and became a model for other protesters. But the "Friendship Nine," as the men became known, endured personal hardships for taking the bold stand.

In a packed courtroom in Rock Hill on Wednesday, not far from the site of the historic sit-in, city and court officials agreed it was time for the record to show that the group's stand against racial injustice was not a crime.

Judge John C. Hayes III, a nephew of the judge who presided over the men's trials, signed an order vacating the convictions of the Friendship Nine and several other protesters who were arrested in Rock Hill in a show of solidarity with the men.